MONROE CITY, Mo. During a Monday afternoon appearance for one of two individuals accused of child sex abuse in Monroe City, Nicole Volkert, the prosecuting attorney for Monroe County, stated that more interviews with victims and their families were being conducted this week and that hours and hours of videos pertinent to the investigation needed to be combed through.
Volkert stated that as the investigation into the deaths of Stanley R. Thompson, Jr., 46, and Elizabeth Parks, 35, proceeds, it is probable that additional victims will be located and charges will be brought.
In Volkert’s first lawsuit, six victims under the age of twelve were named as Confidential Victims 1-6 in order to conceal their identities. The state is holding four of the six victims.
Parks and her attorney, public defender Dana Weis, appeared before Judge Talley Smith. Parks is being jailed on a $100,000 bond at the Randolph County Jail.
Thompson almost appeared in court from the Macon County Jail approximately an hour after Parks and her lawyer were discharged. Additionally, he is being held on a $100,000 bond, but Volkert stated that if enough proof is found, the state may revoke it.
Although Thompson didn’t have a lawyer when he arrived, he said he had completed a public defender application and sent it back to a jail employee right away. Weis claimed that Thompson had not submitted an application to the public defender district office before departing the courtroom before his hearing.
Smith informed Thompson of his rights and said the bond hearing might be rescheduled since he is entitled to legal representation. He consented, and the hearing was moved to August 26 at 2:30 p.m.
There was just one question Thompson wanted to ask Smith.
Ms. Parks, is she doing okay? May I ask? “I said.”
Smith refused to respond, stating that she was now concentrating on Thompson. Although their precise relationship is unknown, Parks and Thompson share the same address in public records.
The only other person at the sessions was a man who claimed to be the parent of one of the victims named in the case. (His name has been omitted to save his child’s identity.)
According to the man, Parks, Thompson, and the four kids who stayed with them last summer relocated into the same neighborhood as him and his family. He calculated that the four kids were between four and eight years old.
I assumed they were just regular folks. He described Parks and Thompson as “just trying to be like the rest of us, a typical blue collar family.” But as time passed, it turned out that other things also emerged.
He said that on July 24, Thompson ordered all of the kids inside while his 8-year-old was playing with the defendants’ kids.
He went on, “I suppose (they) were) forced, in some way, to go inside because my (child) didn’t want to.” A few incidents involving Thompson and my child, as well as Ms. Parks, occurred.
The dad claimed that Thompson had inappropriately touched his child, but he gave no further details.
He thinks that by the time his child told him about the July 24 incident, Parks and Thompson were already in arrest. The child wanted to talk to the police when the dad clarified that what had transpired wasn’t acceptable. After that, he brought the boy to the police station so he could testify.
The dad claimed that Thompson instructed them not to inform anyone when he was questioned about why his child had waited to notify him.
Mr. Thompson expressed his fear that if news spread about what was happening, he would not be able to see his children ever again.
For allegedly touching a child’s genitalia and anus, engaging in oral sex with two children, and touching his penis to another child’s genitalia between July 1, 2023, and July 28, 2025, Thompson faces five counts of statutory sodomy in the first degree. Between July 24, 2025, and July 28, 2025, he was also charged with one count of tampering with physical evidence for allegedly deleting files from a laptop that were pertinent to the statutory sodomy investigation.
Parks is accused of engaging in oral intercourse with three children between July 1, 2023, and July 28, 2025, which carries three counts of statutory sodomy in the first degree. She is also accused of blocking or discouraging four victims from filing complaints, which entails four counts of interfering with a victim.
The Missouri Department of Corrections would impose a sentence of 10 years to life in prison without the chance of parole until 85 percent of the sentence has been completed if a jury finds either Thompson or Parks guilty of statutory sodomy. If a jury finds either of them guilty of tampering, they could be sentenced to a maximum fine of $10,000, one to seven years in jail without the possibility of release, or both.
